With dense forests, sandy beaches and shallow wetlands, Southeast Texas is overflowing with outdoor recreation. Enjoy local botanical gardens and city parks or find adventure in the many hiking & biking locales that abound in Southeast Texas, such as the Big Thicket National Preserve.

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The Official Southeast Texas Visitors Guide is devoted to the area's must-see attractions, best dining, shopping and outdoor activities. The annually produced guide includes hotel listings and easy-to-read maps making it the ultimate resource for visitors looking for an authentic southeast Texas experience.

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Located an hour and a half east of Houston, near the border of Louisiana, Beaumont, Texas is like no other place on earth. It's where the Gulf meets the marsh, saltwater meets fresh and Texas hospitality meets Cajun joi de vivre (joy of living).

Insider's Guide

Coming Up: Bubble Days in Beaumont

Pull out bubbles around kids and everyone is happy and having fun, right? Kids love bubbles! That’s the motivation behind the popular “Bubble Days” in Beaumont. The free event is an effort by the Texas Energy Museum to get kids interested in science by using something kids can really get into!

“What we are trying to do is to introduce kids to sciences,” said Executive Director of the Texas Energy Museum, Ryan Smith. “Petroleum science is our main science and these events get kids at a young age interested and involvement with science outside the classroom.”

The museum’s primary focus is the history, technology and science of petroleum. Smith says bubbles is an easy way to make it simple for kids.

"It’s the fascination with seeing and creating something and watching it move. You are actually creating something when you are creating a bubble, for example blowing with it. I think kids are fascinated by anything they can create that moves.”

Bubble Days is summertime favorite for kids ages three to eight and the events keep getting larger each year.

“We typically have a couple of hundred kids at each event,” said Smith. “They go around the room to different stations and each is different experiments. There’s blowing the biggest bubble they can, put a bubble inside a bubble, building a bubble wall, put hand through a bubble without popping it. We also put kids inside a bubble with a holla hoop.”

The bubbles are also a way to bring science to different parts of the city.

“We take our museum off site and go to community centers in the area and work in conjunction with the library system,” said Smith, “by taking this on the road, we are introducing the museum to other communities, other groups that may not think about coming downtown to see the museum.”

Upcoming Bubble Days:

June 15, 2017

July 7, 2017

“We encourage people to not just have fun at Bubble Days but to use it as an opportunity to have fun at other things Beaumont has to offer,” adds Smith. “Head over to the library, check out books about science, explore the neighborhood. Or, at Rogers Park you can pack a picnic lunch and spend time with your family. "

Smith says the hope is to get kids excited about what they may do in the future.

“It’s a good way for kids to do something science related and maybe we will introduce them to future careers and long term goals of engineering and science careers.”

If you can’t make it to the Bubble Day events, you can always stop by the Texas Energy Museum for an interactive science lesson for all ages.

“What we do here is provide a colorful story about Texas oil,” said Smith. “Whether you want to know about the science or the history of Spindletop, it’s all presented in a very readable, interactive format. People can understand that is right there with them everyday and something they use everyday.”

The Texas Energy Museum has state-of-the-art, colorful exhibits with talking robotic characters that relive the oil adventure for visitors. You can see the entire story of the Spindletop oil discovery in 1901 with a complete rotary rig from the time period.

Andrea Slaydon

Andrea Slaydon is an Emmy award winning journalist who is proud to call Beaumont her hometown! A graduate from Lamar University, Andrea got her start in TV news at KBMT in Beaumont and went on to produce national news programs in cities across the country. She now contributes for magazines, businesses and other media outlets. In her free time, Andrea enjoys spending time with her family, running, hitting up thrift shops and pretending to know how to cook!